Advocacy groups mostly spending to stop Amendment 1, proposal on legislative sessions
After it largely was overlooked all year, Constitutional Amendment 1 is finally getting some attention in the final days of the 2022 campaign.
Amendment 1 is the long question on Tuesday’s ballot that would let the Kentucky legislature extend its winter sessions beyond their current mandatory end dates and call itself back to Frankfort for special sessions later in the year without the governor’s say-so.
The Republican-led General Assembly says it wants the power to thwart Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear more easily without having to wait for its alternating 60-day and 30-day winter sessions.
While millions of dollars were being spent to influence voters on Amendment 2, concerning women’s constitutional right to abortion, few people outside the state Capitol seemed concerned with Amendment 1.
But that’s changed at least a little in the past two weeks. Several groups have reported to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance that they’re spending several hundred thousand dollars to advocate for or against the amendment.
Most of that money is being spent in opposition to Amendment 1. And most of that is coming from the newly created Kentuckians for Checks and Balances, which is running advertisements and sending text messages that criticize lawmakers for trying to seize more power for themselves than the state Constitution intended.
In one ad, the group also calls the ballot question a “cash grab” by part-time lawmakers who want to fatten their public salaries and pensions by extending their time in Frankfort every year.
While a substitute teacher in Kentucky makes $29,000 and a fast-food worker makes $23,000, “now some Kentucky legislators are trying to give themselves $60,000 a year for a part-time job,” the ad’s narrator warns.
Finance records show that Kentuckians for Checks and Balances was organized by the Democratic Governors Association in Washington, D.C., presumably to support Beshear, who often clashes with the GOP legislature. The DGA declined to comment for this story.
Donors to the new group, which raised $323,250 as of Oct. 26, include traditional Democratic Party allies such as the National Education Association, the Kentucky Education Association, the Jefferson County Teachers Association, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Kentucky State United Auto Workers.
Another organization, The People’s Campaign, a social-justice advocacy group in Lexington, reported raising $30,000 as of Oct. 26 to oppose the amendment with digital advertising. Its money came from an affiliated nonprofit, Operation Turnout Inc. in Frankfort.
The Rev. Leon Clark Williams, chairman of The People’s Campaign, said Kentucky’s Constitution has provided a good system of checks and balances since its adoption in 1891.
The Constitution allows governors the authority to run the state’s affairs most of the year, with the part-time citizens’ legislature getting the opportunity every winter to adopt new laws and overrule the governor when it disagrees with him, Williams said.
“This seems to have worked for us,” Williams said. “When you think about the notion of the legislature being able to call itself into session whenever it wants, that could make for a lot of complications.”
Also, he said, turning the legislature into a potentially full-time job would discourage most average Kentuckians from running for one of its seats, because relatively few working-class people could afford to spend so much time away from their families and careers.
“I think that would be a great loss for people who have a lot to contribute otherwise,” Williams said.
The one group spending money in favor of Amendment 1 is Vote Yes On Both, backed by the Kentucky Family Association, a conservative religious advocacy group in Louisville. Vote Yes On Both reported $6,391 in revenue as of Oct. 26. It’s paying for yard signs and radio ads.
The “both” in the group’s name reflects its support of Amendments 1 and 2, since the group opposes abortion and wants both ballot questions to pass Tuesday, said Frank Simon, president of the Kentucky Family Association.
In fact, Simon said, part of his support for Amendment 1 is because that ballot question is wordy and complex, and it will help Amendment 2 pass if voters simply agree to vote “yes” on both rather than get frustrated and skip ahead to the candidates’ names farther down the ballot.
But Simon said he also wants lawmakers to be able to overrule the governor more quickly when necessary.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he said, Beshear temporarily closed many public places — including churches — to curb the spread of the highly contagious virus. Republican lawmakers were upset, but they could not challenge Beshear’s executive orders until they came back into session the next winter, he said.
The 138 lawmakers represent the people of their local communities and likely had a better grasp of public sentiment at that time than Beshear did, Simon added.
